Baker: ‘It wasn’t my time to go yet’

Reds manager Dusty Baker was back on the job Monday after he missed 11 games to be treated for an irregular heartbeat, and then later a minor stroke. Looking lighter by his estimate, 22 pounds of mostly water weight, Baker was smiling and very happy.

“It just feels great to be back with the team here,” Baker said. “I feel pretty much 100 percent. I’m still on some meds but I feel better. You can tell I’ve lost weight. I wasn’t trying to lose weight.”

Did the ordeal change his perspective?

“I’ve always had a pretty good perspective on things,” Baker said. “Now it just makes me feel more appreciative about what I’m doing. I feel more appreciative about my family. I feel truly blessed. To be in the hospital when you have a mini-stroke, you can’t get any more blessed than that. The way I look at it is it’s our year. We’ve got a great support staff here. My guys did a great job while I was out.”

Baker was about to be discharged from a Chicago hospital on the day the signs of the stroke came on. A woman at the hospital asked him to say his name, and he couldn’t.

Was the experience scary?

“It wasn’t scary because I didn’t feel like it was my time to go,” Baker said. “When you go in the hospital, and you’re leaving the hospital, it ain’t your time to go. I wasn’t worried at all. I didn’t like the fact I was having a stroke. At the same time, how many people have been in the hospital when they have a stroke? It wasn’t my time to go yet.”

I will have a full story on MLB.com/Reds.com soon — and Michael Bauman will also have a column on Baker in a little bit.

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